Euripidomania: tracce di fanatismo morboso per il poeta tragico in commedia (Philem. fr. 118 Kassel – Austin)

"e paper tackles Euripides’ posthumous success in IV–III centuries BC comic production.
A8er his death, the tragic poet becomes an auctoritas on the comic stage and comic
characters express an admiration which o8en resembles fandom. A telling example is
Philemon fr. 118, where a character states that he would hang himself if only that allowed
him to see Euripides. Similar hyperbolic passages are considered, stressing the element
of pathological fanatism, a possible explanation of which is to be found in the innovative
treatment that Euripides has of μανία and other pathologies. Lastly, a diachronic perspective
of relevant comic passages allows some general considerations about the genre’ s evolution.